Ice cream for lunch is the answer - whatever the question

Coming back from holiday I was dreading weigh-in yesterday so discovering I had only put on one pound was a relief.

And as I'd only lost one pound since starting five weeks ago I'm back to the beginning again. But I had a very good holiday, eating lots of buffet breakfast and dinner, and having ice cream for lunch so mustn't grumble.

The first few days I ate like a woman who'd been on a diet forever: loads of bread and butter for breakfast and bits of everything. Then Husband commented, 'You're eating a lot of cheese on this holiday,' to which I replied, 'That's because I'm not allowed to.'

I think that was my wake-up call. From then on I tried to resist cheese and bread - not entirely successfully - and generally tried to be more sensible, while not depriving myself at any point. And the fact that I only put on a pound suggests this was a good move. 

We had virtually no exercise on holiday - apart from walking to the ice cream shop - so I'm trying to get back into that again now. Will be going to gentle fitness as usual tomorrow and yesterday I did my first zumba class. Definite disadvantage not being able to tell right from left quickly but I feel more at home than I did with the boxercise so I shall try to persevere.

I have even shopped sensibly this week and tried to plan meals in advance. (Polishes her halo.) But Elder Son and family will be here at the weekend for a few days so eating might be haywire then. 

When the calories don't count

Just found this post that I thought I'd already posted but had, apparently, left in Draft. So I'm not sure whether this will be in the right chronological order.

Diet has gone to pot this week.

Son-in-law's 40th birthday on Wednesday meant creamy pavlova followed by feta and spinach pie. 

Then yesterday,I had ice cream with a friend in Verdi's. A big hazelnut basket sundae. 

On Sunday it's Granddaughter3's christening so there will be more food and cake.

This afternoon Husband asked me if I wanted to go on holiday to Fuerteventure in the Canary Islands. His main concern was that we'll be staying on a half board basis - eat as much as you like breakfast and dinner. 'Will you be okay with that on a diet?'

Seriously? Like I'm going to diet on holiday? 

Second weigh-in

Stayed the same and that is fine by me as I had a really bad - or good depending how you look at it - week with a birthday celebration, ice cream with a friend, and a christening lunch party.

Also I've not started zumba yet as I was poorly last week and decided not to bother going last night as I'm on holiday next week. So I will definitely start the Monday I return, which is about 8th April I think.

Yesterday Husband said, 'Shall we pack our gym things?' 
The hotel has a gym. It also has a lovely relaxing spa and sunbeds. 
'You can,' I said. 'I won't have room. I'm packing books.'

I think he decided against.

Also found out that, as I'm on the countdown programme, I can't have next week off i.e. I still have to pay for it.

Weigh in

Lost one pound. Not amazing but at least my weight went down.

My plan to go to zumba last night was abandoned because the cold I was fighting off a couple of weeks ago - and which I thought had gone - came back and I felt pathetic. Overnight I've gone from sniffle to sore throat to tickly cough. 

Today I'm not ill as such, just not at my peak. (Which was about thirty years ago.)

Onward and upwards - or hopefully downwards.

Just how special is Uncle Ben's rice?

Breakfast and dinner times are fine on Slimming World but I struggle at lunchtimes, trying to think of things to have that isn't salad. Chilli beetroot and tomatoes are my go to and, while I very much enjoy them, there is a limit how much one can eat. Or how often.

So browsing in Sainsburys last time I picked up a packet of Uncle Ben's Special Savoury Chicken Flavoured Rice. It seemed like a quick option. Dug it out of the cupboard today and checked the number of syns. Three. So not too bad. 

I heated it up and before I'd tasted it I was put off by the smell. Now I do have a nose problem so it might not have been entirely the fault of the rice so I took a taste. Oh yuck. Seriously? 

So that's three syns I've saved. Although I still haven't solved the lunchtime problem. We're having baked potatoes for dinner so I don't really want one now as well. Baked beans? But what sort of speed food (basically most fruit and veg except potato) do you have with baked beans?

Uck, I can still smell it and I'm in a different room.

Weigh-in tonight so perhaps I'll just eat fruit for lunch.

Starting again

Rejoined Slimming World.

Can't decide if it's a victory or a defeat.Victory in that I'm hoping to take control of my eating again; defeat because I can't do it without some sort of outside help.

So starting weight (in clothes): 10 st.
Target weight (in clothes): 9 st. 

On the plus side, after two weeks off, I'm back in gentle fitness. I would have been in boxercise tonight as well but my partner can't make it. Realistically I think boxercise is too much for me. My partner, though she's young, has all sorts of joint problems following a very serious accident a number of years ago, so we're both happy to potter along at no great speed, but when I thought about going on my own tonight I realised what a burden I would be to any other partner.

I have investigated (just now) and I'm going to try out a zumba class next Monday evening. I'm writing that on here to keep me to it.

I love music and dancing and I think the class will be a better range of ages and abilities than the high-powered boxing group. And not as professional looking as this group I hope.

If all else fails apparently there is a zumba gold option - for old people - available too.

P.S. For the first time ever today my hairdresser gave me biscuits with my cup of tea. I didn't eat them.

Boxing my way out of a fat situation

Had made up my mind not to weigh again this morning then when I got up and went to the toilet I thought, 'I might as well face the horror. Get it over with. At least then I'll know where I'm starting from.'

Now normally on a Tuesday morning Husband gets up and weighs before I go into the bathroom and he leaves the scales out for me. This morning, he forgot to weigh so the bathroom floor was empty of scales. 

'Hm,' I said to myself. 'I could get the scales out ... or not.'

I didn't.

Next week is soon enough.

I am back in gentle fitness class now and this Thursday I'm starting ... wait for it ... boxercise.

I'll report back afterwards.

A belated Christmas card?

Happy New Year!

Haven't weighed. Refuse to start 2019 being depressed while I have enjoyed myself so much over the holiday.

A day or so ago I received what looked like a late card. Addressed to me - rather than Mr & Mrs - and in a pretty gold envelope. Ooh, I thought, this looks interesting.

It was an invite to rejoin Slimming World.

Good marketing ploy but it went straight in the bin.

How about you? How's your weight doing?

Better not go out in this!

Two weeks' combined losses add up to .6 kg. That equals - hang on while I find out ... 1.3 lbs. Hm, not brilliant but better than an increase and it takes me to 9.5 stone. But my Christmas dress is looking extra-mini, indecent in fact.

Perhaps I'd better stick to cover-all jumpers and jeans over the festive season!

Today I'm off out for Christmas lunch with a group of women. Then there's just Christmas itself to get through. (Get through in a slimming sense that is; I LOVE Christmas!) So New Year new resolutions.

Hope you have a very jolly and wonderful time however you celebrate. See you next year.

uh uh, not today, thank you

Not weighing today. Husband's birthday weekend celebrations have taken their toll. He has gained 3 lbs. 

No way am I getting on those scales. But I still live in hope of having a (mini) dress for Christmas even if I have to go bare-footed.

Any weight loss is better than gain

I plucked up my courage to get back on the scales this week and it wasn't too bad: 60.9 kg. That equates to roughly 9st 8lbs.

Last time I weighed I was 61.3 kg. (I really must find out how to change the settings on my scales to imperial.) That's 9st 9lbs.

If I'm being accurate it's slightly less than 1 lb (.9)  I've lost but I'll colour in 2 blobs in expectation of doing better next week. (Although it is Husband's birthday.)

Feeling fat, fat, fat

So that's two Tuesdays that I've not weighed. 

It was my birthday the Monday before last and the after-choc-shocks are still happening - or were until yesterday when I finished it all. (Except two boxes of Maltesers that I am trying very hard to keep hidden and not eat yet.)

Feeling fat and podgy and didn't want to experience the horror of a reality check so stayed away from the scales today again. 

Next week it WILL be different. It had better be otherwise my Christmas dress will be indecent.

Not getting away with things

The trouble with me - can you tell that I haven't done very well? - is that I think I can get away with things.

Like crisps. I'm not eating a whole packet. No, just handfuls of a family size packet.

Fruit doesn't count. It's allowed. It's good for me. I can eat a whole tub of grapes.

I only eat sweeties in the car so they don't count.

And so on.

Which is why I've only lost barely half a pound this week. I decided to be generous with my decimal placings allowing me to colour in one blob on my Christmas dress. At this rate it will be a very mini dress. (I'm starting with the boobs to ensure some bits of me are covered at least.)

Countdown to Christmas

Okay, time to take this eating back under my control. (Says she having just finished off a packet of crisps leftover by the grandchildren - not their choice - I stopped them from having more.)

My weight is steadily rising so I'm going to do roughly what Slimming World members had the chance to do last year: colour in a dress. Or in my case, dress and shoes.

For every half pound I lose I can colour in one blob in the hope that by Christmas I will have lost 7 lbs or half a stone. 

As of weigh day yesterday I weighed in at 61.5 kg. That converts to 135.6 lbs - let's call it 136 lbs, or 9 st 10 oz.

It's not a huge challenge except for the fact that it's nearly my birthday and then GrandDaughter1's and then Husband's ... Oh and the fact that I'm a little piggy.

And I'm going to the theatre tonight so will have to have ice cream.

When is a stick not a stick?

I've succeeded in two weeks in putting back on the tiny amount of weight I lost during the 30 day challenge.

Not happy. But I knew it would be bad. So I'm stopping the special K for lunch and trying again under the Slimming World rules.

To cheer me up here's a grape stalk pretending to be a stick insect.

Suck it, Ms Scales

Should have weighed this morning but ...
I've had a bad week eating wise;
I'm feeling good at the moment;
I don't want a number to make me miserable.

Also Husband has lost weight for the umpteenth week and is his lowest for ages and I will be jealous.

So there, Ms Scales!

How do you change these stupid scales?

Lost this week. Can't remember exactly but about a pound or a bit more I think. If I could work out how to change the scale settings from kg to stones it would be much easier.

We had an enormous great manual with the scales but I seem to recollect throwing it away saying, 'I don't need this any more.' I'm not even sure how or why it got changed from pounds to kgs in the beginning.

So anyway, technical difficulties aside, a loss is good. I have done really well sticking to the 30 day challenge. Thirty days must be nearly up soon ... Let's see I actually started on 4th September so I suppose that makes it 4th October to finish. Whoopee! Not long now. 

Although I can't believe it's nearly October!

So much for self restraint

Well, my self-restraint/righteousness was a waste of time: I put on .1 kg. Okay, that's not much but it's a GAIN!

I suspect the problem is that I'm mixing and matching diet plans - to ensure I get the most to eat obviously - and it isn't working.

Breakfast - weetabix - all diet plans
Lunch - Crunchy nut corn flakes - Special K diet plan
Dinner - meat and veg in some shape and form - slimming world/rosemary conley plans

I see a number of flaws in this but using Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes isn't one of them. The calories/fat/sugar contents aren't very different surprisingly. There is quite a lot of sugar in Special K. However the Special K diet plan is based on having a 30g bowlful. Hmm, mine is probably more 60.

Dinner time I'm not necessarily eating lots of speed feed as recommended by SW and I'm probably having quite large dinners.

What I haven't mentioned is the amount of fruit I eat during the day. Victoria plums are in season at the moment and I love them. They're okay: they are speed food. But as part of a meal not as snacks. Also pigging out on grapes - loaded with sugar as Husband frequently tells me. 

But I haven't been well. Okay, only slightly unwell, a bit snuffly, dry-throated, you know, but in need of some form of comfort food.

So I'll let myself off this week with a reminder to do better next week. I'm still on the pledge - remember, no chocs, cakes, bread etc - and I'll go back to proper SW lunches.

Hello, misery, my old friend.

Self-righteous? Moi?

On Wednesday evening I walked and drank tea with a young friend. YF had a great big custard slice; I refrained.

Yesterday, after walking in the park, GrandDaughter2 had a packet of Jelly Tots and Husband had a Wispa bar; I had nothing.

Today Husband and I went to Sainsburys and, as in our wont, we called in to the cafe afterwards. Husband had carrot cake; I had baked potato and chilli veg. (Rather strangely it contained more calories than the potato with prawn mayonnaise filling but my calories were probably healthier.)

Can you see my halo gleaming?

Weigh day today. After the last few weeks I would have settled for no change - not been happy but resigned - so it was pleasing to find I'd lost .4 kg. I work that out as about one pound. 

Not a lot until you think of it as a pound of blubber. Then it seems more acceptable. And anyway it's a pound in the right direction.

Onward and downward! I hope.

I also had the result of my cholesterol test today. At 5.2 it's a bit higher than the 4.6 it was last time I was tested in 2010. The doctor says it's fine but I think I should aim to improve it.