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.

Back on the diet today

It started well with two weetabix for breakfast. Collapsed at lunchtime.

My new waste-reduction campaign entails me eating up left-overs, which in this case meant white bread. Toasted with butter (lots of it obviously) and marmalade. On the plus side I did have some chilli beetroot before it. And some left-over barbecued corn on the cob - which although a Free Food is not a Speed Food so not entirely good.

So while saving the planet I am putting my diet at risk. Hey ho. Sacrifices have to be made.

I want to lose some of the weight I've put on over the last few months of holidays and enjoying myself, which is all very well and good but I am torn because every now and then I think, 'So what if I have a bit of extra weight? I am enjoying myself.'
And I reply, 'But you feel much better in yourself - more confident and happy - when your shorts don't feel so tight.'

We shall see which one of me wins.

But I shall have to go back to Slimming World because however strong I think my resolve is it doesn't work without some other motivation.

Viva le vivofit

I have sync-ed my new vivofit (replacement for my fitbit) and tried it out. So far so good once I realised that the heart monitor wasn't part of the wrist piece. Instead you need to wear a belt around your chest. Bit sticky and uncomfortable - especially as I still have shingles scars - so I probably won't bother with that much. (I think later or other models come with it inbuilt.)

So for lunch I had a big breakfast: egg, bacon, beans and mushrooms, followed by strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. It still seems illogical to me so I am having to fight a battle with my head as well. And I certainly don't feel any thinner. But a couple of days to go yet before my first Slimming World weigh-in. 

One thing I am finding, and found the last time I followed a slimming world diet, is that I am very windy. Seriously windy. I could quite possibly blast off and reach the moon. Last time it didn't cease even after a period of time when I thought my body would adjust. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions regarding this?

Eat as much as you like

I am a bit puzzled by this Slimming World diet.

I really liked the Rosemary Conley diet class because the teacher was the first person I'd heard state the obvious: if you eat more calories than you use you will gain weight. Also the class stressed the importance of and incorporated an hour of exercise, but, as I said, there aren't any classes in this area any more.

From what I've seen so far of the Slimming World diet you can eat limitless quantities of some things, which while they may not be high in fat or sugar, have calories - so you can end up eating lots of calories.

And they make no mention I can see of exercising or at least moving. So it's learning a whole new way of thinking.

But several people have told me of their great success with it so perhaps they do know what they're doing - they call it food optimisation. However I mustn't fall into the trap of eating grapes by the bunch again. Last time I did this sort of diet I stuffed myself on grapes in spite of Husband telling me they're full of sugar and you shouldn't do that. I did lose weight though ...

Skip to the ... a&e department, my darling

Okay, that's 100 skips done.

And it's nearly finished me. I can barely type for panting. And I only managed to do about 7 at a time before I'd either trip over the rope or have to rest. Dear me, I need to get back into exercise.

Speaking of which I have ordered a new fitbit - or rather a vivofit, an old model of a different make that is less than half the price of a fitbit. It turns out that the manufacturers of Fitbit don't offer repairs. The best they do is give you 20 or 25% off your next purchase. 

My heart is still thumping.

And I am investigating Slimming World classes. I really liked the Rosemary Conley class because it was followed by exercise but there don't seem to be any in my region.

There is a local SW class on Wednesday at 5.00 pm. 

Watch this space.

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